The Irresponsible Religion of Too Troublesome
by Naitachal666
Summary: Troublesome. Always so troublesome. If it wasn't one thing or another, Shikamaru didn't know what it was.
1. Chapter 1

Hey people and fans all around! I have come up with this story. Now it is up to you to see and tell me if you like it or not.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, or any characters thereof.

The Irresponsible Religion of Too Troublesome

Ivory clouds drifted on a cerulean backdrop to the chirruping of dozens of birds. They were perched in the proud tree that rose above him and whose leafy boughs interceded the edge of his vision from where he lay in the lush grass on the side of a hill. It was a little before noon, and most of the day was still stretched out before him. The liquid music from the birds' warbling throats had lulled him into a dreamy half-awake state in which he was content to stare up at the slowly moving clouds with half-lidded eyes.

As they began to drift shut and he could see his lashes, he noticed the clouds darkening, but the importance of that thought drifted through his head like early morning fog and dissipated as he fell into a light sleep with nothing more than the birds and clouds above to keep him company.

Shikamaru awoke sometime later and opened his eyes, at first tendering that he had slept well into the evening, but rejecting that idea when big, fat raindrops began to splatter all around him. The birds had retreated to some other shelter, leaving him alone under the sodden clouds. Sighing, he pulled his arms from beneath his head and sat up, shaking off the leaves that had caught in his hair. It wouldn't do to get caught in a downpour, which was what would inevitably happen, going by the steely color of the sky. Sighing again, he lifted himself to his feet and brushed the leaves off his back, the last only out of pure sentiment. If he didn't, he'd most likely forget to before he got home, and it would just give his mother another reason to nag him. Setting on his 'I'm half-dead and bored, yet motivated' face, he put his hands in his pockets, slumped his shoulders, and trudged towards town.

He hadn't gotten too far when the sky seemed to let out a sigh of its own before letting down its burden. Cold rain fell onto him and he was drenched in only moments. He paused, taking in a deep breath and letting it go.

"Mendokuse na…(1)" he drawled before continuing through the downpour on his way home. On his way, he passed numerous buildings before finding the right one. He stepped up onto the small porch, safely under the overhang, and gathered himself. His mom was never happy when he stayed out for hours on end 'doing nothing', as she called it. He kicked his sandals off beside the door and put his hand to the knob.

Shikamaru opened the door quietly and walked in, shutting it softly behind himself before tiptoeing his way towards the stairs. Just as he reached the base step…

"Nara Shikamaru! Just what do you think you're doing coming into this house soaking wet!" His mother stood in all her angered glory by the door to the kitchen, wooden spoon in hand, ready to be used if needed. Shikamaru sighed and looked up.

"What, so you just expect me to stand outside?" he asked disinterestedly. Her stance shifted and she stalked towards him, stopping directly in front of him and brandishing her spoon.

"Don't smart talk me. Get into that bathroom right now and change out of those wet clothes before you get sick. Then you come right back down here and mop up this water you dripped on my nice hardwood floor. Now!" She added, waving her spoon dangerously close to his head for emphasis. Taking her advice, Shikamaru continued his interrupted walk up the stairs and went into the bathroom.

He closed the door and sat down on the toilet seat, stretching his legs out in front of him and leaning back against the tank. Shikamaru sat that way for several minutes before he finally decided to strip off his sodden clothes. He let them fall in a wet mess on the floor and let his hair down, the wet strands falling to tickle the back of his neck and his cheeks. Slapping at the annoying tickling, he grabbed a towel and dried himself off with it. After tossing his clothes into the tub and laying them out over the edge to dry, he used his towel to wipe up the mess before laying that, too, out to dry.

Opening the door, Shikamaru walked to his room naked and pulled some pj bottoms from his drawer and put them on. He went back to the bathroom and grabbed a towel and started there, wiping up his trail of water with a foot to push the towel. He made his way slowly down each stair and all the way to the doorway. When he finally was done, he picked up the towel and went up to the bathroom again to fix it up like the other. When Shikamaru was done with that task, he went to his room to flop down on top of his sheets. It really was too early to go to sleep, so he decided to take another nap, rather than waste his energy by getting under the covers. It was just a little cool in his room, and he could feel it in his damp hair, but he ignored it and fell off into a nap, which soon became a deep sleep.

Shikamaru lifted his head from his bed as if it were extremely heavy, and looked at his alarm clock. It was 9:00. In the morning. His entire face felt heavy, and he could swear someone had put caulk in his nose, it was so stuffy. Sitting up, he wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. He was really cold, but his face was hot.

"Mendokuse n - ACHOO!" Shikamaru groaned and got up in search of a napkin to blow his nose on. He stumbled around for a minute before his hand came to rest on a forgotten napkin from some restaurant or another. Blowing his nose, he could almost say he felt worse than he had _before_ he sneezed.

Shikamaru! Didn't you hear me? I told you to come down and - oh…" His mother stopped mid-rant and actually looked at him. "You. Have a fever." she stated. She walked over to him and laid a cool hand against Shikamaru's forehead.

Sighing much like her son always seemed to do, "Stay in bed. I was going to tell you to watch the house and clean it up, but you've finally found an excuse that works. Not that you'll be enjoying your free time. I'll just call someone from the newspaper ads and get them to clean it up some. If you're lucky, they might be nice enough to take care of you while I'm gone this weekend." With that, she left.

Shikamaru groaned and laid back in bed, moving to the side and pulling the covers up over him. It would be just like his mother to make him do all the work anyways. At least she was being nice. But then again, it was just like his mother to find some pesky, annoying girl to clean the house, that would try to boss him around. Thinking of what he could be doing, between sneezes, he sighed and decided not to go back to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later, his mother came in and leaned against the door frame. "I found a girl who's willing to clean this place up, as well as take care of you, if you're good. You better behave. Now, I have to get my things together and into the car. She'll be here in about ten minutes.

Ten minutes flew by quickly enough, and before he knew it, his mother was at his doorway again, this time ready to go and with whom he presumed to be his caretaker-housemaid for the weekend. He had seen her before, but had never bothered to talk to her.

"This is Sabaku Temari. I don't want to hear anything bad about you when I get back, Shikamaru. Here's your medicine." She put a bottle of pill on his dresser, and that was it. His mother turned and left. He stared at the girl, and she stared at him. They probably would have done so for another while, but he ended up sneezing into a tissue before they could go another five minutes.

"I'b Shikabaru…jus a liddle code, tha's all." he said before blowing into a fresh tissue. The girl, or more like young woman, sighed. She moved his wastebasket closer to his bed and pulled out the list his mother must've given her. Then she took herself off to go find what she needed to do elsewhere, pony tails bobbing with each deliberate step.

(1) Mendokuse na…: What a bother…

Well, I came up with idea out of the blue. In fact, I was taking care of my sister and mom's game chickens, when I just said the title in my head foe no reason. Then I had to write a story.

Hope you like the first chapter. Maybe this'll break my writers block on my other stories. Please Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, here's chappy 2. Read up.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or any of its characters. They are property of Masashi Kishimoto.

The Irresponsible Religion of Too Troublesome

Chapter 2

Shikamaru sat in bed, pondering his horrible fate while listening to the pulsing hum of the vacuum cleaner downstairs. His mother had called an hour ago to tell him that she was staying away for another three days. So, now Shikamaru was stuck in the house with a girl who hadn't as of yet spoken a single word to him, while being constricted to his bed because of a fever and a stuffy head. And try as he might, Shikamaru couldn't seem to go to sleep. He laid on one side, he laid on the other, he laid on his stomach, he even curled up with his ass in the air, but he just couldn't manage to drift towards sleep for long before he began another bout of coughing or sneezing.

Sighing, he rested against his pillow and looked for something to entertain himself with. He had already read all his library books. In fact, he needed to turn them back in tomorrow. But he'd put it off until the last minute like he always did. He didn't really feel like reading anyways. Spying his shouji board, he pulled himself out of bed long enough to pull it from its shelf and lay it on the bed. He crawled back into a sitting position beneath the covers and put the board on his lap, systematically pulling the pieces from the interior compartment and laying them out.

That done, he put an elbow on his knee and rested his head cockeyed in his hand while looking at the pieces. He sneezed and blew his nose on a tissue before moving the first piece.

Shikamaru had just won a very satisfying game against himself and was preparing to reset the pieces when he noticed that the vacuum cleaner was off and the girl was standing in the doorway watching him.

"Bot are choo starin' at?" he drawled nasally, looking at her with a bothered look on his face. He continued to wait for answer while she regarded him with a raised brow.

"Not anything really worth it, if that's what you wanted to know." Temari commented markedly. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and laid the last piece in starting position. "But you can play that game pretty well." She tagged on as if she hadn't just insulted him a moment ago.

He sighed, mumbling under his breath about '…troublesome women…', before inviting her to play a round of shouji.

It turned out that Temari was a pretty good shouji player herself. Out of seven games played, she won three, he won three, and the last was a draw. Temari was fiddling with the cushion of the chair she had pulled up to the bed.

"So, maybe I wasn't being so nice earlier when I told you to shove your game piece where the sun doesn't shine. But you called me a vindictive bitch first." she acknowledged after he told her he was too tired to play another round. "At least you're not like my brother Kankuro. You probably couldn't get him to play shouji for anything under a hundred dollars." Her mouth stretched into a sarcastic grin. "Now _he's _the complete asshole that you called me after I won that third time."

"Obay, obay." Shikamaru groaned. "I'b sor-ACHOO!-ry…" he mumbled while wiping at his nose with a tissue. "I'b sorry I called choo an asshole. An' ab bitch. Hapdy?" He asked mournfully.

"Yes." Was Temari's immediate response. "You're not that bad of a guy. At least you know when to give an apology. Not many I can say that of." She was going to continue her comment, when she heard Shikamaru's stomach grumble hungrily and cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" She asked.

"It beans I habn't eated breffus yet." Was Shikamaru's solemn reply as he glared down at the source of the grumbling.

"It's four P.M. and you haven't even eaten yet?" She rolled her eyes and stood up when he shook his head no. "Maybe you're not that smart after all." She said, walking to the door.

"Ib's not by fault my mudder don't lub me enuff to gib me breffus." He muttered loudly, but sighed when he noticed she was already gone. "Bot a bother. Wiben are sto trubblestum…"

"And choo bot this bare?" Shikamaru asked, poking doubtfully at the unidentifiable food on his plate.

"Just eat it. And I didn't buy it anywhere. I made it, so you had better eat it." Temari huffed. "At least its something."

"And how bum you're not beating any bub it?" Shikamaru asked in query. Temari growled at him wordlessly and went to the kitchen to go get some for herself so he'd quit bothering her. She came back into the room holding another plate, and noticed that he was already making hasty work of his.

"Not too dad." Shikamaru stretched out his fork arm and went back to eating. Temari took his word and sampled some of hers. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't that bad. It was actually pretty good stuff, considering she couldn't even remember all of the things she had put in it.

They ate in silence, before she grabbed Shikamaru's set aside plate and her own and took them to clean up in the kitchen. She did that, and returned to the boys room. It was time he took his medicine, and she knew without a doubt that the boy would not have taken it yet.

"Alright, Nara." Temari stated in a no-nonsense tone as she brandished the bottle of pills at Shikamaru. "You're going to take your medicine. Now." The boy stared at her with his mouth pulled down and to one side. He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, his un-gelled ponytail bobbing with the motion.

"Fine." he muttered, his face taking on a bothered air. He held out his hand for the glass of water on his table, and she handed it to him. He took the white capsule from her dubiously and examined it before shrugging and popping it in his mouth. He followed it with the entire glass of water and set the glass down with a clink.

The entire time, Temari had watched how his ponytail had moved, unconfined by the gel that usually kept it stiffly spiked. She wondered what he would look like with his hair completely down. She let her eyes drift idly to the ceiling and tried to picture him with his hair down, damp strands fresh from the shower curling in the humid air as the steam from the hot shower he would have taken left the room wreathed in white mist that revealed his face and chest, hiding the rest just out of blurry view.

Now that she though about it, Shikamaru was a really good looking man.


End file.
